To prevent an interior heat buildup which could potentially damage internal electronic operating components, various types of personal computers are typically provided with one or more internal cooling fans. While the computer is running, each fan normally operates to continuously draw ambient air into the computer housing structure through a housing air intake opening, flow the air generally across the operating components to absorb heat generated thereby, and then discharge the heated air from the interior of the housing through a suitable air discharge opening formed therein.
Despite the fact that they are usually rather small in comparison with the whole computer system, computer cooling fans can generate an undesirable amount of vibration, and attendant housing structure vibration noise, if care is not taken to properly isolate them from the interior computer housing support structure upon which they are mounted. On this account, various fan mounting structures have heretofore been utilized in an attempt to isolate the computer housing structure from fan vibration and thereby attenuate fan vibration-created noise during computer operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,730 discloses such a mounting arrangement for a cooling fan. The cooling fan is received in a mounting frame, and the mounting frame is installed within a computer chassis. A pair of elongated elastomeric vibration isolation members is attached to opposite sides of the mounting frame. This arrangement avoids the mounting frame to directly contact the computer chassis, thereby isolating the computer chassis from fan vibration.
As a general proposition, this method of mounting the cooling fan within a computer chassis yields a satisfactory performance from the standpoint of vibration and noise reduction. However, from cost standpoint, it has limitations and disadvantages. For example, the vibration isolation member is large and consumes a considerable mount of elastomeric material, which increases too much cost per unit.
Therefore, a vibration isolation mounting arrangement for a cooling fan with low cost is desired.